About this blog

My name is Bill Hirt and I'm a candidate to be a Representative from the 48th district in the Washington State legislature. My candidacy stems from concern the legislature is not properly overseeing the WSDOT and Sound Transit East Link light rail program. I believe East Link will be a disaster for the entire eastside. ST will spend 5-6 billion on a transportation project that will increase, not decrease cross-lake congestion, violates federal environmental laws, devastates a beautiful part of residential Bellevue, creates havoc in Bellevue's central business district, and does absolutely nothing to alleviate congestion on 1-90 and 405. The only winners with East Link are the Associated Builders and Contractors of Western Washington and their labor unions.

This blog is an attempt to get more public awareness of these concerns. Many of the articles are from 3 years of failed efforts to persuade the Bellevue City Council, King County Council, east side legislators, media, and other organizations to stop this debacle. I have no illusions about being elected. My hope is voters from throughout the east side will read of my candidacy and visit this Web site. If they don't find them persuasive I know at least I tried.

Thursday, October 29, 2015

The Realities if the Mercer Island Debate

The Times Oct 29th B section article about
the upcoming Mercer Island election is another example of Sound Transit efforts to do
whatever they can to perpetrate their East Link debacle on the entire east
side. Thomas Acker is absolutely right when he “argues the current
council is too willing to let Sound Transit dictate the terms of a planned
Mercer Island light rail station”.

However, even he doesn’t
go into the absurdity of the current council “Loss-of-Mobility-Compensation”
discussions with Sound Transit. How in the world do you “compensate”
islanders for the fact that in 2017 they will lose access to the I-90 center
roadway? That islanders will be the last with access to an I-90 outer
roadway already gridlocked from the loss of the two center-roadway lanes?
That, if East Link is allowed to precede, the light rail trains during the peak
commute will be full well before they get to the island?

Acker’s slogan
challenging current Mayor Basset, “Residents before Region” summarizes the
whole debate. Basset argues “the center is the right place for growth”
and “by putting it there we have saved the rest of the island from
redevelopment”. Saved it from whom? Surely the council has ways of
limiting “redevelopment” on the island for whatever their "share" of regional growth means.

The current council voted
6-0 to oppose “Sound Transit’s initial proposal to have future buses into the
light-rail station make their turnarounds back to I-90 through the Town
Center”. Typical of ST they didn’t reject it outright instead saying “it has no plans
to significantly increase the number of buses that go to the island today,
about 350, but plans for the turnaround are still up in the air”.

The ST spokesman opined
“This is no different than the negotiations with any of the 50-plus
municipalities we work with” and “There’s always room for give and take”.
Again ST refused to recognize that the MI concern wasn’t the number of buses
going to the their light rail station, the problem was the 350 bus loads of
riders using it every morning and afternoon to transfer to and from
trains. The statement “plans for the turnaround are still up in the air”
suggests ST will likely proceed with the bus "turnaround" plans despite the fact that East Link’s one 4-car train every 8
minutes won’t have the capacity needed for all the transferees.

In conclusion Acker and
“Save our Suburbs” are exactly right. However, using the “development”
issue to oppose Sound Transit doesn’t expose the real problems islanders face
with East Link. They need to expose the willingness of Mayor Bassett and
other incumbents to negotiate away islander access to Seattle. Once that's lost Mercer Island will be far less attractive to everyone.

About Me

My last elective position was class president for 25 “class of ’57” seniors in Armstrong, Iowa. I received an MS in engineering at ISU, worked at Boeing for 36 years before retiring in 1998. My wife and I moved into our current home in Bellevue in 1967 where we raised two daughters. Three years of unsuccessful attempts to persuade BCC to block EL are available on “extended session” meeting minutes. Copies of many were sent to all the media outlets, legislators, and others to no avail. I’m hoping this Web site will convince east side residents to query their own legislators.